Elvira is supposed to go on a cruise, but decides to stay home when she suspects her husband is cheating on her. Her husband suspects the same of his wife, and sends an investigator to spy on her on the cruise - but he is ... more &raquoreally spying on Elvira's husband.&laquo less

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DAY'S FILM DEBUT IS "MAGIC"

Paul Brogan | Portsmouth, NH United States | 01/25/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Doris Day began her long and phenomenally successfully screen career when she arrived on the Warner Brothers lot in 1947 to begin filming "Romance on the High Seas".
The project had been kicking around the lot for a while and there had been, at various times, talks about borrowing Judy Garland from MGM or Betty Hutton from Paramount to star in it.
At the time Doris Day was a recognized singer with a very successful six year career as a top big band and solo vocalist to her credit, including a couple of Gold Records. She had no interest in pursuing a film career but was heard singing at a Hollywood party, was screen tested, and the rest is cinema history.
"Romance on the High Seas" is a glossy, bon-bon of a film, decked out in lush settings, with a lot of nice-looking people, pleasant tunes, and wrapped up in some breathtaking technicolor. It's irresistable.
The plot involves a married couple who don't trust one another. The husband hires a private eye to follow the wife on a cruise she is taking to find out if she is being faithful. In the meantime, the wife hires someone to take her place on the cruise so she can remain in New York City to check up on the husband. The private eye falls in love with the woman who is purporting to be the wife and by the closing minutes of the film all of the confusion has been settled to everyones' satisfaction, especially the audiences.
Thanks to the skill of Director Michael Curtiz, who keeps the proceedings moving along smoothly and the attractive cast making the improbabilities rather believable, it works much better than it sounds.
The husband and wife are played by Don DeFore and Janis Paige. It's clearly evident why Defore's movie career was never stellar. On television's "Hazel" he was more at home.
Miss Paige handles her limited screen time with grace and charm. She wears a stylish wardrobe attractively but displays not one iota of chemistry with DeFore.
Jack Carson, as the detective, tends to overact in a number of scenes but in his scenes with Doris Day there is genuine warmth and, at times, subtlety. This was the first of three films they made together and it is clear that their personal friendship contributed to their on-screen playing.
Although billed fourth in the credits, Doris Day stole the picture and received the lion's share of acclaim from critics and moviegoers.
She is a natural, and it's difficult to believe that this is her first film. She has a natural affinity with the camera and it has a love affair with her. In color, she is a radiant dream, genuine, sincere, unaffected, and heartfelt. There are already traces of the comic timing and skill that would serve her so well in her later box-office blockbusters in the 1950's and 60's.
As a "dreamer" who hangs around a travel agency wanting to go someplace, there are traces of Betty Hutton in her style, but once she gets her chance to masquerade as Paige's wife, she develops her own unique personality that has the audience clearly on her side.
S.Z. "Cuddles" Sakall is his usual self and Oscar Levant, the famed author, wit, and musician, is wry and sarcastic as Day's longtime boyfriend. Year's later he boasted that he knew Day "...before she was a virgin...", a remark that has followed her to this day.
Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne put together a pleasing group of songs for this film including "I'm in Love", "It's You or No One", "Put em in a Box...." and the film's mega-hit, "It's Magic". Doris Day's recording of this Oscar nominated song, topped the charts for months, becoming a Gold Record hit and a tune forever identified with her. When she initially sings it during a lovely scene with Carson at an outdoor cafe, a star was indeed born.
If you're looking for an entertaining film that won't place any demands upon you but will leave you feeling warm, fuzzy, and uplifted by the time the end credits roll, then set sail for some "Romance on the High Seas"."

Nobody outshines Doris!

intheloop@yahoo.com | Oneonta, Al United States | 09/08/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I own most all of Doris Day's movies, but this is truly my favorite. Doris really shines in this movie with Jack Carson. The pair have that special spark between them that makes the movie work. Jack Carson is a detective who is trying to catch a wife (Elvira Kent) cheating on her husband. Doris is the lounge singer who has always dreamed of traveling ... anywhere. She is approached by Mrs. Elvira Kent to travel under her name on the trip so she can stay home and catch her husband cheating. With all of the twists and turns of this movie your eyes will be glued to the screen. I would never give away the ending, but it sounds interesting doesn't it? So very "hip", "with it", "cool" and "modern". As usual, Doris is beautiful, and she plays the part perfectly. I wish there were more movies like this being made today. This movie proves that you don't need nudity, violence, and bad language to be perfect entertainment!"

From the People Who Brought You "Casablanca"!

F. S. L'hoir | Irvine, CA | 11/15/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

""Casablanca" has "As Time Goes By," and "Romance on the High Seas" has "It's Magic!"

And it truly is! This Michael Curtiz comedy, starring a young starry-eyed Doris Day playing opposite a delightfully funny Jack Carson has everything that used to make you want to go to the movies: Excellent music, excellent comedy, and excellent dancing (Busby Berkeley numbers, yet!). The story, which is perfectly ridiculous and ridiculously perfect, is too complicated to go into here, and totally irrelevant. It is merely the framework for ninety-nine minutes of sheer entertainment.

Catch the scene at the bar in Trinidad between Jack Carson and Oscar Levant and an anonymous pie-eyed patron! High Farce at its best. And guess what? The movie has extra features that are actually worth seeing: i.e., a Loony Tunes "I Taw a Putty Tat!" cartoon with Sylvester the Cat and Tweety Bird, and a specially-made trailer with Doris Day and Janis Paige that actually makes you want to watch the film again.

This DVD brings back memories of a gentler time when going to the movies was fun!"

Breezy film with beautiful music and song--and there's even

Matthew G. Sherwin | last seen screaming at Amazon customer service | 02/18/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Romance On The High Seas has great musical numbers, a plot to keep your attention--and we see the film debut of Doris Day. The plot moves along at a good pace; and the acting is rather good although I've still seen better.

The action begins when Mrs. Elvira Kent (Janis Paige) suspects her husband Michael Kent (Don DeFore) of cheating on her since he can never celebrate their anniversary together on a vacation. He's always working, Michael tells Elvira. Worse yet, Michael Kent himself suspects that Elvira is cheating on him, too. Things come to a head when Elvira and Uncle Lazlo (S.Z. Sakall) get a small time singer Georgia Garret (Doris Day) to take Elvira's place on the cruise ship and impersonate her. That way, Elvira can actually stay in New York herself to keep an eye on her husband. Michael, also the suspicious type, hires private eye Peter Virgil (Jack Carson) to go on that same cruise and find out if Elvira (who is now Georgia Garrett masquerading as Elvira) is cheating.

Easy plot, right? It took me three tries to understand it. Ouch! The upshot is that Peter Virgil and Georgia Garrett, masquerading as Elvira Kent, are the two people who go on the cruise. Michael and Elvira Kent both remain in New York using their own separate methods to spy on each other.

However, my effort to understand the plot was worth it. The movie has great musical numbers and you can tell why this film made Doris Day a star--she sings beautifully and she looks good, too.

Things heat up when Georgia (still masquerading as Elvira Kent) meets Peter Virgil on the ship--and they fall in love. Of course, Peter thinks she's the real Elvira Kent and it makes for some tough going for Georgia and Peter. Things intensify even more when Peter informs Michael Kent more and more that "his wife" is cheating.

Of course, the plot can go anywhere from here. What will Michael Kent finally do if he thinks Elvira is cheating on him? Of course, the real Elvira never left New York, so she isn't cheating on him. Will the real Elvira find her husband Michael cheating on her in New York when he thinks she's away? What happens to Georgia through all of this? And what about Georgia's guy friend who wants to be her beau, Oscar Farrar (Oscar Levant)? How will he figure into all this? No spoilers here, folks--you'll just have to watch the movie to find out!

The choreography is very good in the musical numbers staged at the ports of call for the cruise ship; and the cinematography works to frame Doris Day so well within the picture as she sings to perfection.

The DVD comes with the theatrical trailer, a cartoon, and a cute piece about singing a song or two--from other movies.

Overall, Romance On The High Seas is a rather entertaining film with comedy, great musical numbers and a relatively stable plot for a film with so much music in it. The acting could have been a tad better but the rest is so good I can almost completely ignore this. I highly recommend this film for fans of Doris Day, classic movie musicals."

Flyweight, Technicolor Glossy, & Charming: The Movie That La

Gary F. Taylor | Biloxi, MS USA | 08/12/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"By the late 1940s, Warner Brothers was no longer a major producer of lavish musicals--but in 1947 they decided to return to the field with ROMANCE ON THE HIGH SEAS, a lightweight tale of luxury liner romance and comic confusion. Lacking a major musical star, the studio sought to borrow Judy Garland from MGM--but MGM, notoriously possessive of its musical leading lady, refused. Warner then went to Paramount and did indeed secure the services of Betty Hutton--but Hutton became pregnant and would be visibly so by the time cameras began to roll. With deadlines looming, it seemed ROMANCE ON THE HIGH SEAS was dead in the water.

Enter Doris Day. An attractive blonde from Cincinnati, Day had begun her career with the aspiration to become a dancer, only to find her teenage hopes dashed when a car in which she was traveling was struck by a train. Told she would never dance again, she spent her recovery singing along with the radio and ultimately emerged as a noted "girl singer" on the big band scene, recording one of World War II's most beloved hits, "Sentimental Journey." But the life of a girl singer with the band was not an easy one, and Day was close to hanging it up when she was invited to a Los Angeles party and favored the crowd with a song or two. Director Michael Curtiz was among those present and although Day was not greatly enthusiastic he quickly coaxed her into a screen test.

Out of such unlikely circumstances are great stars sometimes born. In her autobiography Day writes that she wasn't wild about the film-making process, that she greatly disliked the heavy make-up and hair gel required to create the glossy image then in vogue, and that she was horrified and embarrassed when she saw herself on screen. All things considered, she didn't expect much that was positive to come out of the experience. ROMANCE ON THE HIGH SEAS made her into an overnight sensation, the viable musical star Warner Brothers sought, complete with fan mail and hit records.

As already noted, the film that launched her career was indeed flyweight. Michael and Elvira Kent (Don DeFore and Janis Paige) are a married couple who are habitually jealous and suspicious of each other--and when Janis decides to take an ocean voyage her husband hires private detective Peter Virgil (Jack Carson) to tag along and spy upon her. But unbeknownst to Michael, Elvira has sent lounge singer Georgia Garrett (Doris Day) on the cruise while she remains in New York to spy on Michael. Needless to say, romantic and comic complications ensue, with the film's most amusing moments fueled by such memorable character actors as S.Z. Sakall, Oscar Levant, Eric Blore, Franklin Pangborn, and Sir Lancelot.

No one would accuse Curtiz of having a knack for musicals, and although Busby Berkley handled the musical numbers he was significantly past his prime. Nonetheless, the film moves at fast clip, the musical numbers are engaging, the performances are expert, and the whole thing looks as lush as late 1940s Technicolor can make it--and there is Doris Day, fourth billed but clearly the star, blonde and beautiful and singing "It's Magic." It was magic indeed, and although ROMANCE ON THE HIGH SEAS isn't in the forefront of the musical genre it is nonetheless a truly charming, completely unpretentious movie that both fans of the genre, the stars, and most particularly of Doris Day will truly enjoy. MGM had Garland; Paramount had Hutton; 20th Century Fox had Betty Grable. But now Warner's had Doris Day, and although she was a slightly unwilling star, her film career would outlast the film careers of all of them.

The DVD offers an excellent print of the film that plays to its Technicolor brightness and the sound elements are quite good as well. Unfortunately, there is nothing in the way of bonuses: a Warner cartoon staring Tweety and Sylvester is fun, of course, and a sing-along short gives us the likes of Ethel Waters, but with the exception of the original theatrical trailer there's nothing to pertaining to the film itself.